Swimming with Dolphins: The Assessment Framework, New Labour and New Tools for Social Work with Children and Families

Local authorities, in England, implemented the Framework for the Assessment of Children in Need and their Families in April 2001. The Framework is the first 'official' standard assessment model intended for use in the initial assessment of all 'children in need' under Part 111, section 17 of the 1989 Children Act. This new 'conceptual map' needs to be understood in terms of previous policy documents and earlier technologies of intervention related to child protection and, more broadly, child welfare. However, it also needs to be more expansively perceived, fixed and located as it relates to other elements in New Labour's political 'project'. The Framework's preoccupation with an ecological approach to assessments and with questionnaires and scales are likely to have major implications for social work practice and for micro-engagements with children and families.